The Culture Wars

Okay, I know I'm screaming into the wind on this one, but I've got to get it off my chest.  Heck, maybe someone who can do something about it will even read it and something might happen.  Stranger things have, after all.  It's rained frogs.

One of the reasons America appears to be a "50/50" nation or a "Center-Right" or (now) "Center-Left" nation is that Conservatives surrendered in the culture wars.  Before they surrendered, they weren't fighting it very well to begin with.  When the culture is Liberal, the electorate will be predisposed to be Liberal. 

Now, I'm not going to waste time saying that the culture is "courser" now than it was.  I'm not going to say we need to return to shows like "Leave it to Beaver," or "Father Knows Best."  For one thing, that horse has already left the stable.  For another, I'm not sure I would recommend it even if it weren't.

No, what we need to do is subvert the culture from within.  We need to take back the schools.  We need to take back music, TV, and movies.  And we need to do it well.

Taking the schools back over is a very tall order, and will take a minimum of 30 years to accomplish.  We need to be encouraging our children to become teachers, and then teach conservative values in the classroom.  I'm not talking about the question of Intelligent Design vs. Evolution, either.  I'm talking focusing on a Conservative take on History.  Were you aware that most factory owners and mine owners were already undertaking to shorten the work week and make things safer for workers before unions came into the picture?  Probably not, because that's not taught.  But it's true.  I'm talking about a Conservative curriculum in the first place- more emphasis on "real-world" math and economics, for instance.  Not everyone needs to learn trigonometry.  Everyone needs to learn how to write, and stick to, a budget.

Interestingly, I believe that taking back music, TV, and movies will actually prove easier than taking back the schools.  For one thing, we already know we have some heavy-weights (and middle-weights) in show-business.  Clint Eastwood is such an icon in Hollywood that he is unassailable even when he talks openly about conservatism.  There are others as well.  They might not be quite as iconic, but there are enough of them that they'd be fine if they'd band together.

Currently, conservative entries in pop-culture (which will eventually just become "culture") are some combination of badly done, poorly funded, and under-exposed.  We need to fix all of those.

The typical "Conservative" film in Hollywood is usually a "film" in every since of the word.  It's usually some high-minded concept piece that few will watch.  Or it's some way-too-sappy movie that, again, few will watch.  What we need are not films, but movies.

We need action movies with explosions, and bad guys dying in impressive ways, and a good guy who is definably conservative.  The Governator has made a few of these, but we need more.  We need zombie movies where stereotypical examples of the things we don't like die in gruesome and inventive ways, while stereotypical examples of things we support win the day through self-sacrifice and teamwork.  We need romantic comedies where the main characters epitomize purity and kindness and all of those things, and the conflict comes from something other than one of them lying to the other, or assuming the worst about the other.

We need to promote bands like Madison Rising who sing a conservative message and do it well.

We need Drama TV shows that follow the ups and downs of (just spit balling here) a corporate investment firm.  We could watch them agonize over decisions and find the best way forward for their own employees.  Or maybe a TV show that follows a small business owner, trying to balance a life at home with family against the needs of the business to make it succeed.  We need comedies where the affable, relatable character is a Conservative, with conservative answers to problems.

I can't do this.  That's not the kind of writing at which I'm any good.  I acknowledge this.  But there are those out there who can do that writing, and who should do that writing.  There are those out there who can fund and produce that kind of entertainment, and they should.  There are those out there who can act, or sing, or whatever- and should.

Start fighting back in the culture, it may be the most important battleground between Liberalism and Conservatism.